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Topic: Sharpest EF Lenses (according to DxO) (Read 6643 times)

Many people are singularly focused on lens sharpness (I'm guilty, too), so I thought I'd check out DxO's sharpest lenses for each focal length / zoom range and share the list. These are the P-MPix scores using the 5DIII and are should be just about every production model that they've measured, but I may have missed or accidentally included a few. The duplicates are where there is a tie.

Generally speaking, the wider the lens, the harder, and thus more expensive, it is to make it sharp. Also, sharpness is just one factor of lens design or "personality" as Canon calls in for the cinema lenses:

I have followed DXO from the early days, they started off quite hit and miss but over the years have found them to be fairly accurate.

I own the 24 IS and 35 IS primes which are on there and both deservedly so, the 35 can cut a piece of paper at 50 feet . There again the 40mm 2.8 canon is on there too which i find hard to justify as i owned that and sent it back - could have been a dud but was not impressed.

I have followed DXO from the early days, they started off quite hit and miss but over the years have found them to be fairly accurate.

I own the 24 IS and 35 IS primes which are on there and both deservedly so, the 35 can cut a piece of paper at 50 feet . There again the 40mm 2.8 canon is on there too which i find hard to justify as i owned that and sent it back - could have been a dud but was not impressed.

I keep hearing great things about the 24 and 35 IS lenses, so it's not a surprise. Also, the 40mm has no competition, but it is a sharp lens. I sold mine after using it for about 5 minutes. I have too much overlap with my other lenses.

First, the ratings only apply to a specific camera body. Certainly not across brands.

People tend to look at the numbers but misunderstand what they mean. They are forever comparing ratings from one brand to another, a 12mp camera rating to a 32mp rating. The DXO ratings cannot be used that way.

Sharpness (Acuity) is far from the only quality of a lens, in fact, most lens reviewers measure contrast (MTF). DXO's score, unfortunately does not tell us a lot about a lens, and it is not a measure of sharpness. Certainly acuity and MTF are factored into their score, but it is incorrect to use the DXO overall number and say that represents sharpness.

What factors in to their rating? - They say:

"The DxOMark Score considers the overall performance of a lens plus its performance when used with a specific camera body.

Do they measure comaWhat about Autofocus accuracy or speedWhat about IS

Their is a lot of improvement that needs to be done in their ratings, several times they have been called out for totally wrong ratings, and after defending them, they silently updated them to correct them.

I would not put much if any value in their ratings, since they seem to be unreliable, and use undisclosed weightings that often do not seem to match the real world values that other reviewers take into account.